It's in your soil

BEES and Q s

Bees are one of the most awesome creatures created . We enjoy a variety of delightful fruits , vegetables and, colorful flowers because of their activity . They provide us with honey and bees wax for candles amid other uses such as cosmetics and healing salves that treat burns. The bee wax provides anti fungal , antiseptic, antiviral and antibiotic properties for the hive. One day I would like to encourage a colony in my back yard.

Q s are the queens , one in each hive . Queens can live up to 5 years , this is longer than the worker bee. The bee colony chooses their queen by feeding selected ones Royal Jelly when they are only a little larva . This special meal allows her to develop larger and stronger than the workers. The drones are the males that fertilize the queens eggs , there are only a few of them because they die after mating with the queen . the queen can lay 1500 to 2000 eggs a day . WHEW , she earns her keep.

The drones also do not have a stinger but they have bigger eyes to help them locate their queen. Now the worker bees are the females. SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE , sorry fellas I couldn’t let that one go by .

The worker bees pollinate crops , making it possible to produce billions of dollars in revenue world wide every year from the sale of fruits and vegetables , cotton, soybeans, honey, wax and ointments among other items. We benefit from their activity but the hive does also. They use some of the pollen and nectar that they gather to use for their own food. We benefit as they fly from one plant to the next and leave pollen behind , thus fertilizing the vegetation that produces the fruits and vegetables that we consume.

Bee venom is attached to the bees stinger in a gland. This venom is used to treat those who are allergic to bees through a process called desensitization.

The bees make honey from the nectar collected and this is fed to the adult bees as well as the larvae. They line the hives with bees wax or bee glue to waterproof the hive and create brood cells. The bees wax is formed in their digestive process after they have eaten the honey. The worker bees also seal the cells to protect their larvae and food supply.. this comb is their nursery and pantry.

Modern bee hives provide a frame for the bees to build a foundation for the wax comb. These frames can be removed, the honey extracted and then the frames are returned to the hive so that the bees can refill the existing comb with honey. Seems like this is a helper to the bees because they can collect honey instead of rebuilding the comb first.

It is advised to never give children under the age of one honey whether it is raw or processed . Their immature digestive systems cannot complete absorption as an adult can and will cause tummy upsets. However, topic bee products are beneficial.

Bees stay in their hives all winter . They live off of the honey that is stored in the warmer months .

Sounds like it is important to protect and cultivate our bees . I’m planning my flower garden and veggie garden for next season right now. How about you ?

As I plan I wish to share with you that my harvest was processed successfully with the new freeze dryer this season. The completed product is so easy to transport and store. This includes meat as well.

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One thought on “BEES and Q s”

Sadly, bees who move in here must be removed because it is a public space. There were three hives here just this year! Yet, no bees ever moved into the farm. They would be quite welcome there, but they just never took a liking to it.